Hallucinations not paranormal

[UglyNRude]

Hallucinations, what are they and how are they caused?

First let me say anyone can have these, your not crazy, and you don’t have to have a mental disorder

A hallucination is the brain's electrical system shorting out an one area. This means that the person having a hallucination is experiencing an event through one of their senses that is not occurring in the real world. This is where voices are hear with an auditory hallucination, listening to lots of music before bed can cause this type of hallucination. A short circuit can have us hearing our own thoughts but will seem to come from the outside. A mild form of hallucination is known as a disturbance, and can occur in any of the senses above. These may be things like seeing movement in peripheral vision, or hearing faint noises and/or voices.

Who can have hallucinations? Anyone can have them if exposed to chemical or electrical or even auditory pollution. Though they are more prevalent in those with schizophrenia or bi-polar diagnosis’s. Hypnagogic hallucinations and hypnopompic hallucinations are considered normal . Hypnagogic hallucinations can occur as one is falling asleep and hypnopompic hallucinations occur when one is waking up. Now these can seem real and the person may believe they really happened. Anyone who has experienced sleep paralysis understands how real they can be.

Children seem to have them a great deal between ages 3 to 5.

Now lets look at visual hallucinations, who can have them? Anyone can experience these, once again its when our brain signals get crossed. These are when you see something that isn’t there, a ghost, a shadow man, once again our brains cause this by filling in missing information so a tiny misfire in the brain can cause us to see things that aren’t there. The people who experience these more may have a psychotic disorder to dementia to migraines, but they don’t have to have anything.

Tactile hallucinations are when we feel like we are touched, someone crawling on you, an animal jumping on you, even bugs crawling on you. Now this type of hallucination is usually associated with drug use but doesn’t have to be.

Peduncular hallucinosis usually happens in the evening and your fully awake. These are caused when we have a short circuit near the brain stem.

Now there are many other types of hallucinations I haven’t touched on as I am looking at it more for a paranormal perspective.

Now we have touched on one more possible cause of paranormal. This one is the most complex because its coming from within.

These are the the hardest for a paranormal investigator to debunk as the only evidence comes from within. They seem real to the person experiencing them. This is where having your client write down times and what they were doing when they had these happen. If they keep good notes and you see its when they were in bed, this may be a solution.

[Fiona]

Please forgive this post, it might be long, but I'd love to know your thoughts. Hallucinations can be seen as an easy way to disregard so many people's paranormal experience (sometimes unfairly). Now, I'm not saying that hallucinations don't account for some peoples experience - I suppose it's likely it does - and it might explain SOME of the sightings of ghosts etc away.

The thing is, it's such a broad thing and so easy to use. The amount of time I have read somebody's personal account of an event only to have people say, "well, you must have been hallucinating." My own grandad, who saw the spirits of three figures in his bedroom, after getting over his shock, said, "I suppose it was my brain," etc. I think it's good that we understand hallucinations so we can seperate the true from the false paranormal experiences, but I don't think it would be helpful to use it as a "safe box" to tuck all of our experiences away in. (Not that anyone here has said that, I'm thinking aloud, really.)


Yes, hallucinations can happen to us all. You don't have to be mentally ill to have a hallucination. That is a fact.
However, here are some facts to also suggest that it isn't really a normal thing for us to have this experience:

-Hallucinations USUALLY occur in individuals experiencing stress, using certain medication, experiencing extreme fatigue, or mental illness.

-In a survey of 13,000 adults, 27% reported having hallucinations in the daytime. In this group, visual and auditory hallucinations were closely associated with diagnoses of psychotic or anxiety disorders.

-Children - Hallucinations are rare in children below the age of eight. About 40% of children diagnosed with schizophrenia usually have hallucinations.

-According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), about 75% of adults diagnosed with schizophrenia experience hallucinations, most commonly auditory or visual.

-Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Studies of combat veterans diagnosed with PTSD have found that 50–65% have experienced auditory hallucinations.

I found the following quite interesting:
The neurologic causes of hallucinations are not currently completely understood, although researchers have identified some factors in the context of specific disorders, and have proposed various hypotheses to explain hallucinations in others. There does not appear to be a single causal factor that accounts for hallucinations in all people who experience them.

So really, based on that premise, we don't know anything concrete yet. We don't yet fully understand hallucinations, nor where they come from, other than many (I admit, not all!) who have them are suffering with trauma, severe stress or mental illness.

In all honesty, I don't want to believe in something if it is not real. I do have faith that there are such things as spirits (because of my experience and the experience of others) BUT I don't want to believe in things we can prove are false. But to me, there is no justification (yet, anyway) of being able to take hallucinations are a reason to disregard many paranormal activities.

Sometimes people really are seeing what they are seeing.
Hallucinations may account for some, possibly many accounts of the paranormal, but I don't yet believe it can account for ALL. For example, say there is a certain town/building that apparantly causes hallucinations (due to the environment). Maybe 100 people all saw something there, a figure of a girl, perhaps. It doesn't mean that one out of every 100 didn't see the real deal.....I hope that makes sense? I'm just saying even if 60% of people's experience can be genuinely attributed to hallucinations, it certainly doesn't mean all of them. I still have faith in the genuine cases - whether they are rare or not.

[Bracket]

Fiona

Hollucinations can actually be attributed to a large amount of paranormal events. Especially when it is connected to molds and chemicals. Hollucinations may not be fully understood but what is known is that it is a function of the brain and have no paranormal connection.

[Fiona]

I do believe and accept that some - maybe many - hallucinations can be the genuine explanation of paranormal events, I just don't believe they account for all.

I think the main point I was trying to get across was that because hallucinations can occur in many different ways, for many different reasons, it's very easy to take a ghost sighting and slip it into the catagory of hallucination and I don't think that's always the case.

I know that people on certain prescription drugs or chemicals can induce hallucinations, but I don't believe that every single person on the planet who has seen a spirit is simply reacting to chemicals or living with underlying mental health issues...Maybe sometimes they just might be seeing what they are seeing....?
What about the thousands of people (millions?) who don't just briefly glimpse a figure or hear the odd incoherent sentence in their head...what about those who have had conversations with another entity that lasts for many minutes, and was able to gain information otherwise unknown? Is that a coincidence? Or the genuine psychics who are able to pass on relevant and accurate information to members of the deceased family? Is that hallucination, coincidence or just actually experiencing something paranormal?

With the terms, symptoms, descriptions and understandings of hallucinations being so broad, it does unfairly leave no room for the genuinely paranormal. I don't think all things can be disregarded so easily.

I know that if somebody (a psychic?) was able to pass on a message from my deceased grandfather, and state factual, truthful, personal and intimate details to convince me that they had been able to communicate with him, I wouldn't think it was so far fetched to believe it - even if they had mould in their house, or they sometimes suffer with migraines. Because that's what we're saying here, that's what we are saying could happen, could be responsible for a very unusual, profound and insightful experience.
Sometimes I do feel that the reasons we use to disregard the paranormal can sound just as far fetched as the paranormal explanations.

[UglyNRude]

First let me say no where in my post did i say this was the answer to all answers about paranormal. Did I claim paranormal doesn't exist?

What I did do is point out one more explainable area that must be looked at when looking for answers, this goes right beside carbon monoxide, magnetic fields, toxins, and molds. Its only after you can rule out these that you can then start looking deeper for answers.

[Fiona]

I just want to quote myself here because I don't want you to think I put words in your mouth, UglyNRude:

Quote: I think it's good that we understand hallucinations so we can seperate the true from the false paranormal experiences, but I don't think it would be helpful to use it as a "safe box" to tuck all of our experiences away in. (Not that anyone here has said that, I'm thinking aloud, really.)

I know you didn't say that hallucinations covers all of the paranormal, Ugly I just wanted to pick up the subject from my perspective, from some experiences I've had whilst discussing such issues.

And yes, you are right, we need to be able to rule out these things to get to the real, deep answers. 100% true!

[razor242]

makes since dude good post for me i can always tell when i actually see something or i just think i do or its not real i always take measures to be sure.But many ppl dont investigate further before claming paranormal.